Nikšić, territorially the largest municipality in Montenegro, has only 162,2 hectares of land that is under some form of protection, which represents only 0,08 percent of the territory.
That is, according to the words Aleksandar Perović, director of the Ecological Movement "Ozone", one of the indicators of how much care was taken of the natural wealth of the municipality, which covers an area of 2.065 square kilometers, which is 15 percent of the area of Montenegro.
"We are talking about a municipality from whose territory one of the most important rivers, the Zeta and its tributaries, originates, and which, inexplicably, did not receive the appropriate protection status, as well as the Vojnik mountain, which negatively affected not only the ecosystem values, but also the development potential of the city, which is was the biggest victim of the economic, social, cultural and educational crisis, that is, of incompetent authorities," Perović told "Vijesti".
It is clear, according to him, that the destruction of potentials such as natural resources must no longer be tolerated, but an initiative must be taken to obtain appropriate forms of protection for all those localities that have the necessary conditions, in accordance with the Law on Nature Protection. He reminds that the Municipality of Nikšić does not have established management bodies for protected objects, which "deserve essential protection and investments in the rehabilitation and improvement of the condition, in order to feel and see the benefit of this natural wealth".
"The region of exceptional features of Trebjes, the nature monuments Gornjepoljski vir and the Arboretum on Grahovo, although they received the appropriate type of protection, they never received the appropriate attention from the competent institutions, which needs to be changed due to the problems that exist on the ground, and above all we mean the usurpation of space, uncontrolled waste disposal, unplanned afforestation, biodiversity genocide, especially those protected species for which protection was declared", said the director of "Ozone".
That non-governmental organization launched a citizens' initiative to create a protection study for the waters of Gornja Zeta, and they are nearing the end of collecting the required number of citizens' signatures.
"After that, we will submit the documentation to the Nikšić Municipality Assembly, but we also expect the local self-government, through a new strategic plan, to recognize the need to increase the protected territory, because it is a sustainable vision that should bring benefits to residents and improve the quality of the environment."
Perović believes, "as someone who believes in sustainable development and has a vision of a developed Nikšić municipality in which protected objects will be the best tourist product", that Krupačko, Slano, Vrtačko, Liverovićko and Grahovsko jezero should also be placed under the appropriate form of protection, because it, although it is about artificial accumulations, according to him, over time it also gained ecosystem importance.
"In our opinion, and in accordance with the trends of declaring protected objects in other municipalities, Nikšić could become one of the 'greenest' local communities, a city that will be interesting for tourists to visit precisely because of the protected areas. As the current leadership of the Tourist Organization has finally recognized the development potential of natural resources in the local community, we believe that the conditions are being created to decisively begin the preparation of protection studies for those natural resources that have a real chance of receiving an appropriate degree of protection," says Perović.
As a good example of how protected areas are managed, Perović points out the "Piva" Nature Park, the creation of which, he said, unified the tourist offer of Plužine and "clearly recognized the potential of natural resources, but also the importance of their protection".
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